The story goes:
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” He pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…” With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother, “he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”
Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.
Thought for the Day:
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend – He is crazy about you!
Send this to every “beautiful person” you wish to bless.
God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Read this line very slowly and let it sink in…
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
Pass this message to seven people except you and me.
You will receive a miracle tomorrow (just do it)!
Our response:
Having responded to and shown up these kinds of letter circulars for what they are…artificial and erroneous attempts to preach morals and motivate people to do “good,” we will soon have developed a reputation for being “party-poopers.” However, error and falsehood are parading everywhere in this world in the guise of truth and virtue. It is our job to address it wherever given to do so. “The Brick” story has made its rounds and here is what I have to say about it.
First, it is my suspicion that there are some attention-seekers who make up stories and ask that they be passed on to several others. They often promise a miracle or some good magic to result if one sends the message, the sooner and to more the recipients, the better the rewards. Why do they promise this? Sometimes superstition plays a role (superstition attributes power to the forces of darkness, know it or not) but often the author simply derives pleasure in seeing this same story eventually come back to him or her. Five years later, they are elated to see “The Brick” sent them from someone.
More importantly, however, I would like to point out that this is wax fruit with which we are dealing, and no more nutritious, yet being served up as real fruit. I will show you how to tell the wax so as to save you that bad taste in your mouth.
The moral of the story is described thus: “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention! God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.”
People simply do not read the obvious words, much less between the lines of everything they receive, but judge it to be good because it has an appearance of goodness, then pass it on to many more, falling for the ploys of self-promoters with nothing better to do than to try to look good and get attention.
Notice that, as the story goes, as early as in the second sentence, the fellow “slowed down,” watching for the kids. Yet the moral of the story says, “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” But the driver was purported to have been watchful, slowing down, and nobody appeared on the street to get his attention. The kid who threw the brick at his new, expensive car had not tried to get his attention any other way, declared that others driving too fast paid no attention to him so he resorted to throwing bricks. Therefore, it was the other drivers, and not the owner of the Jaguar, that were to blame. Yet the moral is applied to him as though he was at fault! The person making up this story is a moralist without a sense of equity or morals.
Adding to his or her sins, the writer now discredits God’s character. Why would God throw a brick at a driver who slows down and tries to drive responsibly, watching for kids that might dash from between parked cars?
The author says, “God speaks in our souls and whispers to our hearts.” Of all the times I find God speaking in the Scripture record, those to whom He spoke had no doubt whatsoever that He was speaking to them. Take Saul of Tarsus, for example. He fell to the ground and was blinded for three days. Take Moses and the burning bush, or Joshua, who was confronted by a man with a drawn sword, or Gideon, who had no less than four confirmations given him that God was speaking to him. Try Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, who was made dumb because he did not believe the angel of the Lord at first. Try John, who fell at His feet as dead, or Daniel, who experienced the same.
Let me ask anyone who can reason: Do you not think that if God wishes to speak to you that He can make Himself heard, He that formed the ear and the tongue? And what is this about “speaking to our hearts?” What are they talking about? That blood pump, that organ that beats in our chests? Or is it that enigmatic spiritual component making up a part of us? How about speaking to us, as a person? When you speak to someone, do you go up to that person and put your lips on his or her chest and speak to “the heart?” Where in the Bible does one find God “speaking to the heart?” When God spoke to someone, He spoke to the person, and not to the soul, or the “heart,” or liver, or kidneys, or even to the ear. He spoke to His creature and was heard. The writer then says, “It’s our choice to listen or not.” The notion that we can disregard the Lord when He speaks is simply a foolish one, an idea from those who have never heard from the Lord. They quite often mistake subconscious thoughts, intuition, or “gut feelings” for the Lord’s voice.
Then comes the “lovey-dovey” mush: “He sends you flowers every spring. He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend – He is crazy about you!”
Then, why, may I ask, would He throw a brick at your new Jag when you have taken the care to slow down and watch? Flowers every spring? He also sends storms, floods, the sword, and plagues. Sunrise every morning? I wonder how much they enjoy it in a drought when the animals are dying and there is nothing growing to be found for miles! What about the guy sentenced to be executed at sunup? Do these things necessarily show that He is “crazy about you?” Of course not! This is nothing more than sentimental nonsense. But it is more than that in evil, because it represents God in a false way. Just think: If God loves us so much that He would send a sunrise or sunset and flowers every spring, then why would He not prevent a child from dying of cancer that same fine spring morning? Come on, wake up, silly people! Get wisdom! Stop being foolish, deceived and being deceived. Learn! Do you not realize that your ignorance is costing you, dearly at that? It is! I know; it certainly did cost me. While these may appear to be simple or innocent matters, they are not, I assure you.
This is why we write The Issues of Life. This is why we address these things, to bring knowledge and understanding to people, so that they can live useful and vibrant lives unto God, Who created them. Are we arrogant for claiming to have that knowledge to give you? If we did not have it, yet claimed to have it, that would be arrogant. If we presumed to have it of ourselves, as though we were something special, that would be arrogant, but if we have it because God gave it to us, recognizing our own inability to make it happen, and admit so, that is not arrogance. As the apostle Paul said, if we boast, our boast is not in ourselves but in the Lord. That is a legitimate boast, the only legitimate boast I know of.
The writer ends with; “Send this to every “beautiful person” you wish to bless.”
Sending the message of “The Brick” as it stands brings a curse and not a miracle as the author of the story promises. I have just thrown a brick at your car, those of you who need it. Those “beautiful persons,” who “drive responsibly,” are impervious to bricks of truth, and will be thankful to hear this message. Those who need and receive the truth will indeed be blessed. That will be a miracle, whenever it happens.
Victor Hafichuk